Ideas are to objects as constellations are to stars [translated from Trauerspiel, 1928].
Walter BenjaminThe idea that happiness could have a share in beauty would be too much of a good thing.
Walter BenjaminLess and less frequently do we encounter people with the ability to tell a tale properly. More and more often there is embarrassment all around when the wish to hear a story is expressed. It is as if something that seemed inalienable to us, the securest among our possessions, were taken from us: the ability to exchange our experiences...Experience has fallen in value. And it looks as if it is continuing to fall into bottomlessness.
Walter Benjamin